She has already appeared at a rally organized by Equality North Carolina fighting the anti-gay amendment before the NC legislature approved it’s placement on the ballot. She also plans to continue making public appearances against the initiative all the way up to May 2012 (when North Carolinians will vote on it). But perhaps she’d prove most effective by reaching out to country music fans in the rural part of the state where the most anti-gay votes will likely emanate.

After coming out, Mrs. Wright famously said, “They would rather you were a drug addict than be gay. They will forgive you if you beat your wife, lose your kids to state, get six divorces, make a sex tape, get labeled as a tramp — any and all of it is better than being gay.”

She’s right. A “sinner” can ask forgiveness for such “one time” slip-ups, but because LGBTs take on their “sin” as an identity that they “commit” unapologetically everyday, fundamentalists and far right conservatives see us as the living embodiment of sin.

Could Mrs. Wright convince NC’s church leaders that she’s not inherently evil? Hmmm…

My ex-‘s brother lived in North Carolina as a deeply, deeply closeted gay man. Nobody in his family knew, until after he recently dropped dead.

Without a will.

His father swooped in and immediately pilfered property the son’s home he’d shared with his longtime boyfriend. Then father locked the boyfriend out of his own home and told boyfriend not to come to the funeral.

That is the “pro-family” outcome already available under North Carolina law.